Still further considerations, of a less general but of all the more urgent character, are stated in the letters exchanged between the two men to whom Charles I was accustomed to give most heed, Wentworth and Laud. They found the reason of the embarrassment which had arisen in Scotland, not in the King’s design itself, but in the want of proper means for its execution. Wentworth said moreover, that if these rough spirits were able to carry out their disorderly designs against the honour of the King, the danger would be as great in England as in Scotland: that the peace of the three kingdoms depended on the course taken by this movement. Laud answers in similar terms. He adds, that if the King did not defeat the Scots, a second confusion would arise greater than the first, and that no one could see what this would bring with it in its train[112]. These two men were the principal supporters of the unparliamentary and hierarchical system which the King had undertaken to enforce. From the first moment they had felt the recoil of the Scottish movement upon both the other kingdoms: they saw that the whole system as well as themselves personally would be endangered by its progress: and they were of opinion that their whole strength must be exerted to put an end to it, cost what it may. The assertion was advanced at this very time that an alliance between the Scottish and English nobles had preceded the disobedience of the former: that they had made an agreement in regular form to abolish the episcopal constitution, and to curtail the prerogative of the King[113]. But this is without doubt too strong a statement. The [A.D. 1637.] Scottish nobles were aware of the discontent of a powerful party in England which was excluded from the government. They may have reckoned upon it, but at this time no proof is found of a formal agreement.